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How to get your stuff back when the Romans stole it.

Some late night Latin translation. Festus wrote an abridgement of a lexicon by Verrius to which he added his own adaptations and supplements, but it barely survived into the modern world. Seriously: only one manuscript copy made it, and that was missing pages and damaged by pests, aging, and fire! Also surviving is an abridgment by Paul the Deacon. That's right, an abridgement of an abridgement, which was pretty common, concern for the busy pace of life not being merely a modern phenomenon.

N.b. the reciperatores were members of a board at Rome appointed to oversee the legal process of claims for recovery. The word literary means 'recoverers', but that sounds funny and could be confused with those seeking recovery, so I left it in the Latin.

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